Assembly Resolution No. 1028
BY: M. of A. Rules (Wallace)
URGING the United States Congress to reinstate the
Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to urge the United
States Congress to reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994,
which was passed in an effort to prevent mass shootings; and
WHEREAS, The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was a subsection of the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States
federal law which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian
use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault
weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as
large capacity magazines, detachable firearm magazines which can hold
more than 10 rounds of ammunition; large capacity bans are an integral
component of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban because they also apply to
semiautomatic firearms without military-style features; and
WHEREAS, Assault weapons equipped with a large capacity magazine are
designed to fire bullets at higher velocities than handguns, and victims
who are struck by multiple rounds are 60 percent more likely to die than
those struck by a single bullet; and
WHEREAS, On September 13, 1994, the 10-year ban was passed by the
United States Congress, and was signed into law by former President Bill
Clinton on the same day; the ban only applied to weapons manufactured
after the date of the law's enactment; and
WHEREAS, After the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired on September
13, 2004, several constitutional challenges were filed against
provisions of the ban, however, all were rejected by the courts; and
WHEREAS, After the ban expired, assault weapons and large capacity
magazines once again became legal to manufacture and purchase; since the
expiration of the ban, these types of weapons have been used in some of
the Nation's worst modern-day shootings, including most recently on May
14, 2022, in Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were fatally shot in a
grocery market and on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas, where 19
elementary children and two teachers were fatally shot; and
WHEREAS, According to a 2017 Journal of Urban Health study, assault
weapons and other high-capacity semiautomatics together generally
account for 22 to 36 percent of crime guns, with some estimates upwards
of 40 percent for cases involving serious violence including murders of
police officers; and
WHEREAS, Trend analyses also indicate that high-capacity
semiautomatics have grown from 33 to 112 percent as a share of crime
guns since the expiration of the federal ban, a trend that has coincided
with recent growth in shootings nationwide; and
WHEREAS, Moreover, law enforcement recovery of assault weapons fell
nationwide while the ban was in place; and
WHEREAS, According to further research, gun massacres fell 37
percent while the ban was in place, and rose by 183 percent after it
expired; and
WHEREAS, A 2019 study examined mass shootings from 1981 through
2017, and found that during the 10-year period the federal ban was in
effect, mass shooting fatalities were 70 percent less likely to occur
than either before or after the ban; and
WHEREAS, Today, almost two decades after the Federal Assault Weapons
Ban expired, there are approximately 15 million assault weapons in the
United States; and
WHEREAS, The State of New York's gun laws have decreased access to
certain firearms; 74 percent of guns recovered from New York originated
from six states with weaker gun laws; and
WHEREAS, We as the governing body of the State of New York, along
with the members of our Congressional Delegation, implore the President
of the Senate of the United States and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives to reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, in
order to decrease the frequency of mass shootings leading to the
senseless deaths of thousands of innocent Americans; now, therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to the President of the Senate of the United States, the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to each member of the
Congressional Delegation from the State of New York.
